Lipscomb senior infielder Kellie Sirus was named a First Team selection to the 2010 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® Softball Teams, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Sirus, a Psychology major from Sarasota, Fla., posted a 3.92 grade point average.

This was the second year in a row Sirus has been named a First Team Academic All-America. She is the first Lipscomb athlete to accomplish this feat in the NCAA era.

Both Sirus, and senior center fielder Lauren Dortwegt, earned First Team ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA District IV honors. District IV includes Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Ohio and Michigan.

The award honors both athletic and academic achievements. Sirus was one of the top offensive players in the Atlantic Sun Conference this past season. She was named MVP of the Atlantic Sun Tournament and was also named to the Atlantic Sun All-Conference First Team.

The Lady Bisons finished with a 50-13 record, including a berth in the NCAA Tournament where they lost in the regional final to top-seeded Alabama.

To be eligible for Academic All-America® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.

Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.

Kiihnl in top 50: Doug Meffley of Northwestern Athletics Communications monitors a number of NCAA Division I softball pitching statistics.

Lipscomb sophomore pitcher Whitney Kiihnl is tied for 40th in the category of strikeout ratio in terms of innings pitched with a 9.2 Kiihnl has pitched 435 innings the past two seasons and struck out 574 batters.